VOA新闻听力100篇

VOA新闻听力100篇 News Item 1 This week, the chairman of America’s nuclear agency said there is little chance that harmful radiation from Japan could reach the United States. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko also said America has a strong program in place to deal with earthquake threats. No new nuclear power centers have been built in the United States since nineteen seventy-nine. That was when America’s worst nuclear accident happened at the Three Mile Island center in Pennsylvania. The accident began to turn public opinion against nuclear energy. News Item 2 Most restaurants in the United States offer their customers a glass of tap water at no charge with their meal, but this week many restaurants are asking diners to pay a dollar, or more, for a glass of water. Placards on their tables explain that this small amount helps bring clean water to children around the world. It’s called the UNICEF Tap Project. News Item 3 Japan has confirmed radiation contamination of some agricultural products near a nuclear power plant crippled by last week’s earthquake and tsunami that is still spewing radiation. Yukio Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary, says high levels of radiation have been detected in milk in Fukushima prefecture and spinach from Ibaraki prefecture have been found to be contaminated. He tells reporters there is no immediate health risk and the government is considering regulating shipments of farm products from the affected area. At the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant efforts continue to try to cool overheating reactor cores and water in tanks containing spent fuel rods. News Item 4 Some of America’s brightest students came to Washington for the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science competition. The awards ceremony was the culmination of an intense week during which the 40 finalists were queried by judges and the public. They met with scientists, politicians and even President Barack Obama, who welcomed them to the White House. These high achievers were whittled down from nearly 2,000 contestants’ nationwide, representing excellence across many disciplines. News Item 5 The billionaires’ club is growing. Forbes magazine’s annual list shows there are now 1,210 billionaires around the world—that is 199 more than last year. Although the world’s top three earners are unchanged from last year, the newcomers in the list of the world’s richest did not come from the U.S. or Western Europe, but from Russia and the Asia Pacific region. Magazine chairman Steve Forbes says of the 200 new billionaires this year, the majority are from the BRIC 1 countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China. News Item 6 Defense attorneys for former Liberian president Charles Taylor say testimony from prosecution witnesses is tainted by cash payments from a special fund provided by the United States. Mr. Taylor’s war crimes trial is drawing to a close after more than three years. Defense attorney Terry Munyard says money“lavished” on prosecution witnesses has polluted “the pure waters of justice.” He told the court that those payments went far beyond the simple reimbursement of expenses and were used in such a way “as to taint the testimony of some of the prosecution witnesses.” News Item 7 Many world leaders are expressing shock and sympathy following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and are offering to assist the country as it struggles to recover from the disaster. U.S. President Barack Obama pledged assistance for what he called a potentially catastrophic disaster in Japan. Mr. Obama called Japan one of America’s strongest allies and said the U.S. is offering whatever assistance is needed. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said a preliminary assessment indicates that American troops, ships and military facilities were not seriously damaged by the quake or tsunami. News Item 8 Women are joining together all over the world to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8. Women poured through London’s streets on Tuesday singing loudly for women’s rights. The banners they carried trained a spotlight on the range of issues still at hand: health, education, and politics to name a few. News Item 9 Food prices continue to rise, threatening to push more and more people into poverty and hunger. A new report from the UN food agency says one of the best ways to boost agricultural productivity worldwide would be to remove the barriers women farmers face that their male counterparts do not. Studies show when women have financial resources, they are more likely than men to spend them on food, health and educating their children. Women farmers tend to be less productive than men, but there are good reasons for that, says Agnes Quisumbing, an economist with the International Food Policy Research Institute. News Item 10 Ronald Reagan’s Hometown Celebrates His 100th Birthday. Though he gained prominence as an actor in Hollywood and later as President of the United States, the people of Dixon, Illinois, remember Ronald Reagan as a hometown hero who saved the lives of 77 people while working as 2 a lifeguard. The town is honoring Reagan’s 100th birthday this year, with a year-long celebration. The 40th President’s hometown was never very far from his heart. News Item 11 The National Football League wrapped up the 2010 season with the biggest football game of the year: Super Bowl XLV—played in a huge stadium in Arlington, Texas. But without the small, Midwestern town of Ada, Ohio—population 5,400—the game would not have been the same. Ada is where the Wilson Sporting Goods company makes footballs. Wilson has been the official football maker of the National Football League since 1941, and many of the 130 employees at its factory in Ada have spent most of their lives there—many working for 25 to 45 years. News Item 12 Scientists say a common headache medicine dramatically reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, a physically-disabling brain disorder that mostly strikes elderly adults. In a six-year study of just over 136,000 nurses and health professionals, researchers at Harvard University School of Public Health in Massachusetts found that people who take ibuprofen(布洛 芬镇痛药)regularly for headache or other pain reduced their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by nearly 40 percent. Taking one or two pills of ibuprofen two or more times per week was considered regular use. Other non-prescription pain relievers, including aspirin and acetaminophen, did not show a similar protective benefit. News Item 13 Insurgents opposed to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi continue to hold two strategic towns along the road to eastern Libya, after unsuccessful attempts by pro-Gadhafi forces to retake them. Libyan warplanes launched new air strikes Thursday against the key eastern oil port of Brega, but the son of embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi says the bombs were only intended to “frighten” rebels there.Libyan warplanes struck at the rebel-held oil port of Brega on Thursday, a day after anti-government fighters turned back an assault by forces loyal to the country’s longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. News Item 14 A new study of more than 1.1 million people in six Asian countries finds that, like Westerners, Asians are more likely to die if they are overweight or obese. However, some of the highest death rates were seen in people who were severely underweight. Many previous studies have found that the risk of death increases as body-mass index increases. Body-mass index, or BMI, is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. The trouble is, those studies mostly analyzed Europeans and other Westerners. So scientists couldn’t be sure if the results applied to other groups. News Item 15 3 Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in Africa. In addition to providing employment, agriculture has the potential to transform African societies through the increased export of produce to Western markets. Many agree that transformation will not take place without increased investment in agriculture, including public or private loans to small farmers. Statistics show that Africa has about 12% of the world’s arable land but 80% of it is not in use. News Item 16 In July 2012, the world’s largest AIDS conference comes to Washington, D.C. It’s the first time the gathering will be held in the United States since 1990 and preparations are already underway. Despite the massive U.S. financial, medical and scientific contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS, a major issue blocked the conference from being held here. That was a law that prohibited HIV infected people from traveling to the United States. It was passed in 1987 in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Efforts to lift the ban began during President George W. Bush’s second administration. It was finally repealed in January 2010 under President Obama. News Item 17 As Discovery begins its 39th and final mission into Earth’s orbit Thursday, America’s 30-year space shuttle program comes one step closer to its scheduled end this April. Discovery has been a regular visitor to Earth’s orbit since its maiden flight in 1984. It is the oldest and longest-serving vehicle in the U.S. space agency’s shuttle fleet. Discovery’s final flight follows several delays due to technical problems and repairs to its external fuel tank, but NASA’s mission launch director Mike Leinbach says the shuttle is still space-ready. News Item 18 Not long ago, most professional musicians lived in a world far removed from the nitty-gritty of business management, distribution and promotion. But today, social media, laptop production techniques and fragmented musical tastes have largely replaced the old relationship between musicians, their audiences and the marketplace, making entrepreneurial savvy more important than ever. A leading U.S. conservatory now teaches students how to create successful careers in this brave new world. News Item 19 Egypt’s most famous tourism sites, including the great pyramids and the antiquities museum in Cairo, have reopened after being closed during the popular uprising and political tumult. Egypt’s key industry— tourism—returns after weeks of protests and celebrations, while other countries in the region deal with unrest. The sound of hooves as horses pull jostling carts of people within the Giza pyramids’ complex is the sound of money to the men who make their livings from tourism—a dominant industry in Egypt. 4 News Item 20 Demonstrations against long-serving governments continue to roil the Middle East and North Africa Friday from Libya eastward to Bahrain. In Libya, more protests as well as funerals for those killed in recent unrest were held after midday prayers, and witnesses said demonstrators gathered in the port city Benghazi, a bastion of resentment against the government. Human Rights Watch said Friday that 24 people have been killed in recent violence in Libya, many of them in Benghazi. Graphic videos posted on the Internet have shown shootings described as being inflicted by armed forces against protesters. News Item 21 The National Park Service says the largest slave village in the Washington region is buried on the grounds. Archeologist Joy Beasley walks across the land now known as Best Farm. But approximately 200 years ago, it was a 300-hectare plantation called L’Hermitage, owned by the Vincendieres, French farmers from Haiti. Their stone home and outbuildings still stand. The National Park Service archeologist says her team discovered evidence of six other homes on the property where slaves were kept. The Vincendieres owned 90 slaves. News Item 22 Cameroon’s new mineral research center will begin operations this year. South Korean mining researchers are making trips to Cameroon to determine the overall cost of the facility, to be located in the capital, Yaounde. They say the center will cost several millions of dollars and will ultimately be offered to the Cameroon government as a gift. The Korean investors say the facility will also have geological engineers to help in the design and construction of mines—and economic geologists to determine the commercial feasibility of projects. They will decide whether there are enough minerals to justify the cost of a mining venture. News Item 23 A major study by the World Health Organization shows that most people with high cholesterol levels around the world are not getting the treatment they need, to avoid such serious diseases as heart attacks and strokes. And the authors of the study—the largest ever undertaken—say the problem is especially serious in the developing world. The study was done on 147 million people, and found an increasing incidence of high levels of cholesterol the world over. Even more worrying, the researchers say, is that many of those patients are going untreated. News Item 24 A huge crowd has gathered in central Cairo calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down. The opposition has called for one million people to protest. Crowds headed on foot for Cairo’s Tahrir Square throughout the day Tuesday. They included women with babies in strollers. Their confidence is boosted after the army, in an official statement, described the demonstrations as 5 legitimate and promised it would not fire on demonstrators. Army helicopters dropped leaflets calling on demonstrators to keep the protests peaceful. News Item 25 The popular revolts roiling Egypt and other Arab countries are being driven by young people clamoring to oust autocratic governments they have known all their lives. The hardscrabble Tunis neighborhood of Ettadhamen provides a representative look at the hardships, and aspirations, of some of the young people behind Tunisia’s so-called Jasmine Revolution. News Item 26 A new study has tracked how low self-control can predict poor health, money troubles and even a criminal record in their adult years. The study began with 1,000 children in New Zealand. Researchers followed them for decades. They observed the level of self-control the youngsters displayed. Parents, teachers, even the kids themselves, scored the youngsters on measures like “acting before thinking” and“persistence in reaching goals.” The children of the study are now adults in their thirties. Terrie Moffitt of Duke University found that kids with self-control issues tended to grow up to become adults with a far more troubling set of issues to deal with. News Item 27 President Barack Obama delivers his second State of the Union Address to the nation on Tuesday, before a joint session of the U.S. Congress. President Barack Obama will face a dramatically altered balance of power in the House of Representatives when he addresses Congress and the nation Tuesday in his State of the Union address. Republicans are now in the majority in the House, and they have already approved a repeal of Mr. Obama’s landmark reform of the U.S. health care system. The move was symbolic, since the bill will die in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats and Independents still hold a majority. News Item 28 New research suggests a relatively simple blood test might make it possible to predict who is at a higher risk for developing dementia. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease, and currently, it can only be definitively diagnosed in an autopsy, by examining the brain. Beta-amyloid is a protein that shows up the brains of Alzheimer’s victims. It’s also present in spinal fluid and, in very small quantities, in the blood. News Item 29 Health Services in eastern and central Kenya are getting a big boost through a new $100 million dollar program. The U.S. development agency, USAID, has awarded the funds to an international non-profit organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. For the past four years, Jhpiego has led a nearly $34 million program in eastern Kenya called APHIA II. APHIA stands for AIDS, 6 Population and Health Integrated Assistance. The goal is to “empower front-line health workers” with effective, low cost solutions to delivering quality health care. News Item 30 Over the past 20 years, the United Nations says the Asia-Pacific population has been growing, but at a slower rate compared to the rest of the world. Asian fertility fell by 39 percent in a 20-year period from the late 1960s while remaining above the population-replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. By 1990, nearly two-thirds of Asian countries had experienced declines of at least 25 percent. News Item 31 President Barack Obama will go to Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday to speak at a memorial service for those killed in Saturday’s shootings. The president will try to help the nation deal with the rampage, which left six people dead and a U.S. congresswoman critically wounded. President Obama and his wife Michelle will cross the country to attend Wednesday night’s memorial service at the University of Arizona.The president will speak there, in an effort to help Americans cope with the tragedy. News Item 32 New medical research into a possible cure for Parkinson’s disease is focusing on finding biomarkers in patients so that doctors can start treatment early before tremors and other symptoms start. Actor Michael J. Fox’s recent commitment of $40 million toward finding a cure for Parkinson’s is helping to fund the new research. The current clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s is based on visible tremors and stiffness of limbs. But researchers say a more comprehensive diagnosis is needed. News Item 33 U.S. President Barack Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to outline the benefits of a tax cut package he signed into law in December. He says the tax cut compromise reached with Republicans will help grow the U.S. economy. Mr. Obama encouraged business owners to take advantage of a new incentive included in the legislation that allows any business to write off the full cost of most of their capital investments for one year. News Item 34 A U.S. congress woman is in critical condition and six people are dead after a gunman opened fire in an Arizona parking lot where Representative Gabrielle Giffords was meeting with constituents. The dead include a federal judge. More than a dozen people were wounded, including Giffords. A federal probe has been launched amid a national outpouring of sorrow and outrage. 7 News Item 35 Three-dimensional cell phones and batteries that last much longer are just two of the technologies that could become commonplace in the next few years. For the fifth year, IBM has looked at the horizons of research, picked five technologies and announced them as tomorrow’s innovations. “Individual technologies take different times to matriculate,” says John Cohn, IBM’s Chief Scientist. “But the thing that’s common about them is that we think in 2015, all these predictions will actually be something that we take for granted.” News Item 36 The killing of the governor of Pakistan’s most populous province has highlighted the ongoing clash in Pakistani society between secularism and religious radicalism. Some of that radicalism is fueled by resentment against privileged and often secular-minded elite who govern the country. News Item 37 In India’s main tea-growing region, scientists say tea production is being impacted by climate change. India produces nearly one third of the world’s tea. The rolling Himalayan hills in India’s northeastern state, Assam, are carpeted with lush tea bushes whose leaves produce some of the world’s finest teas. But there are concerns that rising temperatures may be affecting the tea plantations, resulting in declining productivity of the brew to which millions of people across the world wake up. News Item 38 African leaders are in Abidjan for more talks with Ivory Coast’s rival presidents. The country’s political crisis has sent thousands of refugees into Liberia. Leaders met with defiant Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo Monday, offering him an amnesty deal on condition he cedes power to rival Alassane Ouattara. News Item 39 More signs that the U.S. economy is moving in the right direction: The U.S. Labor Department says new claims for unemployment benefits declined last week, dropping below 400,000 for the first time since July 2008. Other data also shows that businesses expanded in the month of December while home sales grew modestly in November. Despite the encouraging numbers, investors remain cautious as 2010 comes to a close. New estimates show the snowstorm that lashed parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic last week cost retailers about a billion dollars in lost sales. News Item 40 8 The Holy Land enjoyed a flood of visitors last year, which benefited Israelis and Palestinians alike. It was a record year for tourism in Israel thanks to a lull in violence. There were 3.45 million visitors in 2010, 14 percent more than the previous record two years ago. Mark Feldman, who heads the Israeli travel agency Zion Tours, says tourism is booming. Most of the visitors were Jews and Evangelical Christians. Some 625,000 Americans came, more than any other country. News Item 41 Voters in Ivory Coast have official results from only a small number of polling stations outside the country. About 10,000 ballots in an election of more than four million registered voters shows former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara leading President Laurent Gbagbo by about 60 percent to 40 percent. As the wait for domestic results continues, President Gbagbo’s party is already calling on the electoral commission to annul returns from three northern districts. Both the Gbagbo and Ouattara campaigns say some of their supporters were prevented from entering polling stations Sunday. News Item 42 Diplomatic cables released by the website Wikileaks indicate the U.S. is concerned about the security of Pakistani nuclear material. They also indicate questions about Pakistan’s commitment to fighting insurgents along the country’s border with Afghanistan. The New York Times and the Guardian newspapers reported details of the cables today. A French news agency quoted a Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman as saying the fears are misplaced. Meanwhile, Interpol has placed Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange on its most wanted list after Sweden issued an arrest warrant for him as part of a rape investigation. News Item 43 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe needs to boost its role in Afghanistan and foster greater economic development throughout the region. Clinton spoke today at the OSCE Summit in Kazakhstan. “Our goal here in Astana should be to move forward on democracy, human rights, economic growth and strengthening our security community. In other words, let’s embrace the vision of Helsinki and apply it faithfully in this new century.” The OSCE is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Helsinki Accords, which gave birth to the OSCE structure. Clinton said insecurity anywhere in Central Asia is a challenge for all members and that protracted conflicts remain dangerously unresolved. News Item 44 Russia’s prime minister says his country will have to build up its own nuclear weapons capability if the United States fails to ratify the new strategic arms reduction treaty signed earlier this year. Vladimir Putin told CNN’s Larry King program in an interview to be aired later today that the new treaty is in the United States’ best interest and it would be, in his words, dumb for U.S. legislators to ignore that. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the new 9 START in April. The agreement would cut nuclear stockpiles in the U.S. and Russia by about 30 percent. News Item 45 Thai police say they arrested two Pakistani men and one Thai woman this week on forgery charges, as they attempted to flee to neighboring Laos. The three were arrested in cooperation with Spanish authorities, who on Thursday arrested six Pakistanis and one Nigerian in raids in Barcelona. Spanish authorities believe the group supplied fake passports used by Muslim militants who bombed Madrid commuter trains in 2004. They also suspect the group supplied fake passports to al-Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based group accused of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. News Item 46 The U.S. unemployment rate rose in November while the economy added far fewer jobs than expected. Today’s closely-watched report from the Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose 0.2% to 9.8%. The economy had a net gain of 39,000 jobs far fewer than the 150,000 most experts had predicted. News Item 47 Iranian media reports say officials are calling for the removal of a Star of David painted on the roof of the headquarters of the country’s national airline after the Jewish symbol was revealed in a satellite image. Reports say Internet media company Google took the image of the building which was reportedly built by Israeli engineers who worked in Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. News Item 48 President Obama is calling a new free-trade deal between the U.S. and South Korea a landmark agreement. Mr. Obama accepted the deal Friday after a three-year stalemate and said it will deepen the two nations’ alliance, and he urged the U.S. Congress to ratify it. President said the agreement will increase U.S. exports by up to $11 billion a year and support at least 70,000 jobs. As part of the deal, South Korea has agreed to let the U.S. keep a 2.5% tariff on Korean-built cars for five more years rather than end it immediately. News Item 49 The World Food Program is teaming up with the World Meteorological Organization and other agencies to help subsistence farmers increase their crop yields. The WFP says 2010 has been a year with many climate related emergencies which have created a havoc with the agricultural produce of many developing countries. News Item 50 10 Some of the most dramatic, climate-related emergencies include flooding in Pakistan, Haiti, Burma and Burkina Faso. World Food Program spokeswoman Emilia Casella says the number of people affected is expected to reach about 375 million a year by 2015. “We are estimating that by 2020, some countries having their agricultural yields halved by weather&climate emergencies-drought or flood.” Casella says a detailed food insecurity analysis could pinpoint areas that are most at risk. She says WFP is working with the Food and Agriculture Organization to help small subsistence farmers increase their food yields. News Item 51 International firefighting teams are battling day three of what officials are calling the worst fire in Israel’s history. Police said Saturday the huge wildfires continued to burn out of control near the northern port of Haifa. The firefighting aircraft are coming in from Russia and have been dropping water on the blaze with additional help from the U.S., France and Britain. Middle East neighbors Jordan and Egypt sent equipment. So far, 41 people, at least, have been killed and thousands have been forced to evacuate from the area. News Item 52 A Russian rocket carrying three navigation satellites has crashed into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit. Russian news agencies said the rocket and the satellites went down about 1,500 kilometers northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii after veering off course. News Item 53 British lawmakers plan to vote on a bill today that would increase university tuition charges. If approved, the college tuition in Britain would jump from just under 5,000 dollars to about 14,000 dollars per year. That proposal has sparked student protests. British authorities say the increase in tuition is necessary to bring a large deficit under control. News Item 54 Delegates at the end of a two-week UN climate conference held in Cancun, Mexico have approved a modest plan to combat global warming. More than 190 nations approved the agreement Saturday, which includes a multi-billion-dollar fund to administer assistance to poor nations. Bolivia was the only country to object the deal, saying the agreement does not go far enough to curb climate change. News Item 55 Police in Sweden say a car explosion in what appeared to be a suicide attack killed one person and wounded two others in central Stockholm on Saturday. Police say the first blast occurred in a car near a busy shopping street and left two people dead. Moments later, there was a second explosion 200 meters away. Police found an injured man at that scene. The man later died. Swedish 11 authorities say it’s possible the dead man had blown himself up. The Swedish news agency TT said ten minutes before the blast they received e-mails warning of unspecified action. The news agency said the warning, also sent to the security police, referred to Sweden’s involvement in Afghanistan and caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed by a Swedish artist. News Item 56 More than 80 politicians, academics and entertainers have called on Iranian leaders to release a woman sentenced to death by stoning. In an open letter published today in the Times of London, the signatories said Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has suffered enough. Her stoning sentence was for a conviction of having an illicit relationship with two men after the murder of her husband. News Item 57 Officials in Pakistan say a suspected U.S. drone aircraft attack has killed four militants in the country’s northwest tribal area. The attack today took place in the North Waziristan region near the Afghan border. Also, officials are saying militants attacked a security checkpoint in the northwest part of Pakistan, killing two soldiers. Authorities said the attack happened in Mohmand in Pakistan’s tribal area near the Afghan border. News Item 58 Members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church must find a new place to worship after protesters forced them to evacuate seven of their homes where they had been holding church services. The protesters say the Christians were engaged in illegal religious activity. According to Indonesian law, homes may not be used for religious services. However, the Batak Christians say they are forced to use their homes to worship because the government has not allowed them to build a church. Rights groups criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to take action against violent extremists. News Item 59 The leaders of China and India have agreed to boost trade and work on resolving longstanding disputes. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh said after their meeting in New Delhi today they will try to increase trade to $100 billion annually by 2015. That would be a $40 billion increase from the current level of trade. News Item 60 An $858 billion tax bill was approved late Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives and now goes to President Obama for his signature. The measure maintains tax cuts first enacted under President George Bush. It also extends benefits for unemployed Americans by 13 months. News Item 61 12 A state-owned oil pipeline has exploded in Mexico’s Puebla state, killing 22 people and destroying more than 30 homes. The Pemex oil company said Sunday’s explosion occurred at a duct where thieves were trying to steal fuel. Emergency crews have brought the fire under control, but photos from the area show a thick cloud of black smoke hanging over the accident site. News Item 62 British police say they have arrested 12 men in a large-scale counter-terrorism operation. The head of Britain’s counter-terrorism efforts said the suspects were arrested in a large-scale operation. He said they are between ages of 17 and 28, and will be questioned on suspicion of preparing for acts of terrorism. News Item 63 President Obama has signed into law legislation that will allow openly homosexual people to serve in the military. At the signing ceremony in Washington today, Mr. Obama said the repeal of the so called“don’t ask, don’t tell” measure will strengthen national security and uphold the ideals that men and women in uniform risk their lives to defend. The repeal has faced opposition from some lawmakers, including Vietnam War veteran, Republican Senator John McCain, who says it would do great damage to the military. News Item 64 Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem are taking place in a rare spirit of cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian authority. Tourism is booming, thanks to a lull in violence. About 90,000 tourists are expected during the holiday season, 30 percent more than last year. Israel has eased travel restrictions for the holiday, facilitating passage from Jerusalem to Bethlehem which is under Palestinian rule in the West Bank. News Item 65 Officials in Italy say a package has exploded at the Swiss Embassy in Rome, wounding one person. A spokesman for the police, Italy’s federal force, said the explosion happened Thursday when the man opened the package. The injured man was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. Another explosion was reported at the Chilean Embassy in Rome. A third package at the Ukrainian Embassy turned out to be a false alarm. News Item 66 Heavy snow and strong winds slammed the northeastern United States on Sunday. The storms disrupted air, rail and road traffic just as Christmas holiday travelers attempted to return home. The U.S. National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings through this evening along the northern portion of the U.S. east coast. 13 News Item 67 Qantas Airways said Thursday it will suspend all Airbus A380 flights until they determine the cause of an engine failure that occurred earlier in the day. A Qantas spokeswoman says Flight QF32 was an route from Singapore to Sydney when one of the A380 four engines shut down. Witnesses on the Indonesian island of Batam near Singapore reported hearing an explosion as the plane passed over and found debris that appeared to be from an aircraft. News Item 68 The head of the World Food Program says she saw many malnourished children during a visit to North Korea. Speaking to reporters after a three-day visit to Pyongyang, the WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said Thursday that her trip had shown the need for special fortified food for the children is very strong. She said she had seen many children that are losing the battle. News Item 69 Rainstorms have prompted the U.S. space agency NASA to cancel Thursday’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery. It’s the latest in a string of delays plaguing the shuttle’s final mission. NASA says Discovery is now scheduled to take off on Friday afternoon. And mission managers will meet early Friday to re-evaluate the weather conditions at the site of the launch, which is Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. News Item 70 A passenger plane crash in a mountainous area of Cuba has killed all 68 people aboard the turboprop airliner. Cuba’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed there were no survivors among the 40 Cubans and 28 foreign nationals. Search and rescue crews pulled bodies from the wreckage of the twin turboprop plane in central Cuba’s Sancti Spiritus province. Thick vegetation in the area shrouded that crash site. News Item 71 Thousands of BBC journalists walked out of the state-funded television and radio broadcaster on Friday in a 48-hour strike over cuts in their pension plans. The strike by some 4,000 members of the National Union of Journalists disrupted TV and radio shows enjoyed by millions, forcing the station to run pre-recorded or repeat programs. News Item 72 U.S. President Barack Obama has announced plans to lower trade barriers with India in an effort to boost business ties with the rising economic power. President Obama outlined measures to ease export restrictions to India in a speech Saturday to a group of Indian and U.S. business leaders in India’s financial center of Mumbai. He also highlighted new business deals with India that he says 14 will help create 54,000 jobs in the United States. News Item 73 The International Monetary Fund announced Friday it has approved measures to overhaul governance of its organization, giving China and several other countries more power in decision making. The change altering shares of voting power lessens controlling interest the United States and European countries have in the organization and makes China the third largest share holder. The U.S. and Japan are the largest share holders. News Item 74 The people of Guinea are choosing a president to complete that country’s first democratic election in more than 50 years. But ethnic tensions are hanging over the race. The run-off vote Sunday pits former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo against longtime opposition leader Alpha Conde. The two candidates belong to Guinea’s two largest ethnics group, and politicians are accusing both of using racial rhetoric to appeal to their voter base. Mr. Diallo won 44% of the vote in the first round multiple-candidate balloting in June. News Item 75 Upset Bedouins pelted Israeli police with rocks on Sunday, angry about the demolition of an illegally built mosque. Israeli officials said hundreds of officers descended on the southern Bedouins City of Rahat early Sunday, acting on an earlier court-ruling that said the mosque’s builders never got the required permits. Israeli authorities also alleged the mosque was built with money from the northern branch of the Islamic Movement which supports the militant group Hamas. Police said they fired tear gas to break up the protest and that no one was hurt. Officials said five of the stone throwers have now been detained. News Item 76 A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at two forty-six p.m. local time on March eleventh. Japan’s Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world. There are more than four thousand Seismic Intensity Meters in place throughout Japan to measure earthquake activity. These meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening. Information about the strength and the center of the earthquake can be learned within three minutes. News Item 77 A new survey finds that more than eighty percent of Internet users in the United States search for health information online. The survey is from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American 15 Life Project and the California Health Care Foundation. Susannah Fox from the Pew Internet Project says doctors are still the main source of health information. But the survey found that searching online is one of the leading ways that people look for a second opinion. News Item 78 An IBM super computer named Watson has won the latest battle of man versus machine. Watson won the first ever “Jeopardy!” quiz show competition starring a computer as a player. The show was broadcast on American television February sixteenth. The super computer defeated former “Jeopardy!” champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter during the three-day competition. The two men had been the show’s most successful players until then. The IBM computer proved to be more knowledgeable in every category, including the arts, popular culture and science. The human contestants spoke about their loss after the show. News Item 79 Egypt’s government faced international criticism when it blocked Internet service to try to suppress the uprising there. But Egyptian activists found other ways to get their message out. Google, Twitter and a company called SayNow launched a service last week called speak2tweet. They wanted to give Egyptians a way to communicate with the outside world. News Item 80 A new Internet training center in Togo will give young people in that part of West Africa a chance to improve their job skills. The International Telecommunication Union and the computer-networking company Cisco Systems launched the center. A telecom company in Lome is also taking part in the effort. Robert Shaw of the ITU says students will learn the basics of what he calls the “real plumbing of the Internet.” News Item 81 Researchers have been trying to reproduce the extraordinary sense of smell that real dogs are born with. Now, officials at the Glasgow airport in Scotland are testing a new security device called an “electronic sniffer dog.” The electronic sniffer dog represents one of the latest developments in the area of smell technology. A Scottish company, Cascade Technologies, joined with the French security company Morpho to develop it. The device uses lasers to identify explosive material in gases in the air. The purpose is to identify explosives that may be hidden on a person’s body. News Item 82 Tablet computers were the stars of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The international gathering in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the world’s biggest technology trade show. Companies launched more than eighty handheld computers similar to the popular Apple iPad. Tara Dunion from the Consumer Electronics Association is a spokeswoman for the show which ended Sunday. 16 News Item 83 An organization called the World Future Society publishes a yearly report about how technology, the economy and society are influencing the world. Tim Mack heads the World Future Society. He says medicine is one area of growth. Mr. Mack says the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology are working together to create new ways to help patients. These include better ways to provide medicine and identify disease without invasive operations. Mr. Mack also says developments in artificial intelligence could lead to a future where disabled patients could be cared for by a voice-activated robot. News Item 84 People in a community on the Pacific coast in Southern California awoke last week to a sea of dead fish. About eight hundred fifty sailboats and powerboats come and go from the marina at King Harbor in the city of Redondo Beach. But the sardines that swam into the marina never swam out. Estimates put the number of dead fish in the millions. News Item 85 Food companies say a new kind of maize could take the crunch out of corn chips and other popular foods. The big Swiss company Syngenta genetically engineered the maize to contain an enzyme called alpha amylase. The company says this enzyme will help the crop produce more ethanol, a renewable fuel, while using less water and energy. News Item 86 Scientists have worked for twelve years to develop what they call Green Super Rice. They say several varieties should be available to farmers about two years from now in parts of Asia and Africa. The “green” in Green Super Rice means environmentally friendly. Researchers say it will produce at least as much grain as other rice plants but with fewer inputs. “Super” means the rice is designed to better resist droughts, floods, salty water, insects and disease. News Item 87 Economists across the world are expressing concern about rising food prices. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recently released its Food Price Index. The list showed that a number of foods cost more than during the world food crisis of two thousand eight. The index is at its highest level since it began in nineteen ninety. Demonstrations and deadly food riots have broken out this month, as they did in two thousand eight. News Item 88 Researchers are testing stem cells from children to treat health problems they possess because of 17 damage to the body’s nervous system. The stem cells were recovered when the children were born. The researchers hope to learn if the cells can improve the quality of life for these boys and girls. An American study showed that children can safely receive their own cord blood stem cells. The study was completed at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. The cells came from blood in umbilical cords. Umbilical cords connect babies to their mothers during pregnancy. Collection of the cells is done at birth and is painless. News Item 89 Tunisia is observing three days of mourning for people killed in the revolution that ousted the president a week ago. As many as one hundred people may have died since the start of the uprising in December.The former president, Zine el-Abidene Ben Ali, held power for twenty-three years. A temporary government has offered a general pardon to political prisoners and agreed to recognize banned political parties. The acting Prime Minister, Mohammed Ghannouchi, has also removed all restrictions on the media. The interim government promises to hold elections. And it has arrested members of Mr. Ben Ali’s family for investigation of corruption. News Item 90 At the end of each year, the Associated Press releases a list of the top ten news stories of the year. American editors and news directors are asked to vote for what they consider the top stories. This year, the story with the most votes was the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. An oil rig operated by BP exploded in April. The explosion killed eleven workers. Close to five million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf until the leak was contained in the middle of July. BP agreed to set aside twenty billion dollars to pay claims and damages to people working in the area’s fishing and tourism industries. News Item 91 Researchers presented their newest studies last month at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people smarter. But researcher Ellen Bialystock says it probably does make you better at certain skills. News Item 92 So far, no studies have proven beyond question that the radio signals from cell phones cause brain cancer or other health problems. But a new study by government scientists in the United States has some people wondering what to think. The scientists found that holding a cell phone to your ear for at least fifty minutes increases brain cell activity. Even the scientists themselves are not sure about the meaning of their findings. News Item 93 18 The World Health Organization says alcohol abuse is the third leading cause of death and disability in the world. A new WHO report says the harmful use of alcohol kills two and one-half million people a year. And officials say action is needed to reduce the problem. The WHO released the “Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2011” last week. The report shows young people at risk. It says three hundred twenty thousand people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine die yearly from alcohol related causes. That is nine percent of all deaths in that age group. News Item 94 Last week a study of one hundred ninety-nine countries and territories confirmed what many people may have already noticed. Majid Ezzati at Imperial College London led the research team. He says the results show that obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are no longer just found in wealthy nations. These are now worldwide problems. The study appeared in the Lancet. It shows that in two thousand eight, almost ten percent of men were obese. That was up from about five percent in nineteen eighty. That same year, almost eight percent of women were obese. By two thousand eight, the rate of obesity among women was almost fourteen percent. News Item 95 State and local governments across the United States are facing big budget deficits. Many of these shortfalls include promises of future retirement payments for public employees. Several states have had to borrow money for pension plans that have fallen below required funding levels. Pay and benefits for public workers has been a target as state and local governments try to cut spending. At the same time, there are efforts in several states to reduce the negotiating rights of public employees. News Item 96 The United States is making the first major changes in its food safety rules since the nineteen thirties. A new law called the Food Safety Modernization Act will govern all foods except meat, poultry and some egg products. It calls for increased government inspections of food processors. And it lets the Food and Drug Administration order the recall of unsafe foods. That agency has only been able to negotiate with manufacturers to remove products from the market. The new law also increases requirements for imported foods. News Item 97 The United States Department of Agriculture has given farmers permission to plant genetically engineered sugar beets with some conditions. A USDA agency ruled on the most popular variety of Roundup Ready sugar beets. The agency said the genetically engineered sugar beets do not harm the environment or increase threats by pests. News Item 98 19 A ten-billion-dollar deal aims to create the world’s largest exchange company. The plan would combine the operators of the New York Stock Exchange and Germany’s Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The two companies, NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse, announced the agreement Tuesday. Deutsche Borse shareholders would own about sixty percent of the combined group. One thing it still needs is a name. The new company would have headquarters in Frankfurt and New York. News Item 99 Airtight plastic bags can help farmers protect their harvests without the use of harmful chemicals. These bags are designed to keep air out of crops in storage. They are a simple way to fight insects and keep food fresh. Ten countries in West and Central Africa are involved in a project to improve the storage of cowpeas, also known as black-eyed peas. News Item 100 This month, oil prices rose above one hundred dollars a barrel. Prices went above one hundred forty-five dollars a barrel in two thousand eight. The price of oil affects prices and demand for energy, plastics, farm chemicals and many other products made with petroleum. During the last week of February, Americans paid the second biggest weekly increase in gasoline prices in twenty years. This young woman has to drive a long way to school, so high gas prices mean less money for other things. 20